HATTIESBURG — Southern Miss beat Rice 40-22 on Saturday night, improving to 1-0 in Conference USA play and 2-1 on the season overall.

After the game, Southern Miss coach Jay Hopson broke down what he saw, talking about his defense's propensity for forcing turnovers, Jack Abraham's 428-yard passing day, the change-of-pace in the running back room and more.

The Hattiesburg American transcribed Hopson's words:

Opening statement

“Good win. It’s always good to start conference play off with a win, that’s important for us. I thought our guys played well. I thought we came out in the second half and played really well. I thought the pick by Rachaun in the second quarter was a huge play, almost a pick six. I felt like we did some good things on offense, we threw the ball and ran the ball well tonight, that’s always a plus. Defensively I thought we did some good things. We created turnovers, that was really positive on defense. Again, a good team win that I am excited to get under our belt.”

On Rachaun Mitchell’s interception

“If I had to pick a play of the day, I thought that his interception was probably the play of the day. It turned the momentum late in the second quarter in our favor.”

On the identity of the Golden Eagles’ defense

“We want to create turnovers, we want to be a physical defensive unit. The Nasty Bunch prides itself on all of that. I certainly felt like today that the strength of our defense was that we created turnovers and gave our offense some plus yardage field position and they made some big plays. Again, I thought we tackled much better today. We still had a few missed tackles but I thought we tackled better this week than we did last week and it was just a good overall team win.”

On the Golden Eagles' offensive performance

“Offensively, I thought we were pretty good in all phases.”

On Jack Abraham’s career passing night

“I thought he threw the ball well. He was really good with his reads. Give him credit and our receivers too, they made plays when they had the opportunity. I think we have some explosiveness, so that’s really good. We have some guys that can make people miss when they get the ball in their hands.”

On the shovel pass

“We have guys that can play in space. It is just one of the many plays, but our guys made some good plays off of it again tonight.”

On the running backs

“We started playing Trivenskey about a week and a half ago. He is a young man that has earned his opportunity to play and the reality is that he is just a freshman but he is a really good freshman. He is a young man that is very explosive, has a lot of speed, and has really good size. I think you are just going to see him get better and better and better. Then you have Steven Anderson who is a guy that is big and powerful and he showed that tonight. We have some freshman running backs that can tote the mail, so sometimes you have to put those freshman in and give them that opportunity, and those young men did a great job tonight.”

On Kwadra Griggs’ playing time

“You will see Kwadra next week. We have been getting him in shape and getting him ready. Jack was playing well tonight so we didn’t feel like there was a big need. If we had needed him we would have played him tonight but I think we really kind of had this coming up week penciled in as the week to get him ready. I want to be fair to him and he is knocking rust off quickly and looking good in practice, so you will see Kwadra Griggs playing.”

On the Golden Eagles’ offensive line

“I thought we blocked well. I thought they played with a lot of fire and passion. Again, I felt like they have been challenged and they are a good unit. They really are, they are a good football unit and they answered the bell. It wasn’t the offensive line’s fault that we weren’t effective two weeks ago. We just didn’t execute on a lot of plays. It wasn’t just the offensive line. A big point of emphasis for us is to be a precise football team and I think we were much better tonight than we were a couple of weeks ago.”

On shutting down the Rice passing attack

“I just thought we played well. I thought our defensive backs covered well and I thought we were good up front other than one big bust in the second quarter that gave up an explosive play. Other than that, I thought we played pretty well defensively other than a few instances where I wouldn’t say mental errors, but it seemed like we were a little late getting the call and we just didn’t really execute well on a few plays. Other than that I feel like we played hard and did a good job of shutting them down. Give Rice credit, their quarterback made some plays, their big receivers made some plays too. We knew that coming in Rice was talented on the perimeter. No. 28 and No. 10, those guys make things happen and then you add No. 2 in there so they have playmakers. I felt like our defense played hard, they played emotional which I like to see and for the most part had a pretty good game.”